The Million Dollar Question

Everybody knows that exercising is good for you. Many of us know how great the endorphin rush is after a workout. Yet many people seem to prefer taking prescription drugs to get some similar feeling rather than to get active. Is there a way to overcome that gap between thinking and doing?

In this post and those that follow,  I am going to outline the main reasons people give for being physically inactive and offer some long-term solutions to the challenge of reaching a  proper level of physical activity.

Let’s take Lee, a software developer – young, slim and generally in good health. He doesn’t really see any need to go out there and break sweat. Moreover, even the thought of going running is pretty unpleasant for him. Working with Lee as an example, we can get to the root of the Million Dollar Question of exercise psychology: Why do people exercise? One way to find it out is to ask: Why don’t people exercise?

For many individuals, exercise is neither pleasant nor exciting. For instance, running really isn’t much fun when you first start or only do it every now and again. Sometimes the very fact that it is a natural activity means that people don’t have enough information about how to run at the right intensity level, with the correct technique, or about comfortable equipment. The cornerstone of a healthy lifestyle is the choice of an enjoyable form of exercise and workout type.

My first piece of advice for Lee would be to start by choosing moderate-intensity activities he would probably enjoy the most. Exercise is voluntary, remember it’s supposed to increase the quality of life, not increase stress and discomfort! So for Lee the best start on the road to sustainable fitness would be to identify 3 or 4 physical activities that look like fun, and just try them out without pressuring himself over the coming two weeks. Do you know any cool workouts you could suggest to him?

Sportlyzer Closed Seed Investment

Sportlyzer, a newcomer in sports web applications working on an intelligent online fitness instructor, closed venture capital investment from Estonian Development Fund and a private angel investor Rein Lemberpuu. Sportlyzer has made its goal to become the leading online fitness advising artificial intelligence in the world.

In August 2010 Estonian Development Fund and private angel investor Rein Lemberpuu made a seed capital investment into a sports technology company Sportlyzer that is developing a social web application for workout tracking and consulting. Sportlyzer’s uniqueness stands in workout and motivation management algorithms that give birth to a digital online fitness instructor. Rein Lemberpuu, former CEO of Playtech Estonia, head of  Supervisory board at Sportlyzer, explains his investment into Sportlyzer: “I invested into Sportlyzer because I find its idea contributing to community and the team has potential to build a major leader in the area of fitness-management applications.”

Sportlyzer focuses on fitness level exercisers with sedentary work style. Online application helps to find workout buddies, manages exertion and motivation if needed. As Kristjan Port, the director of the Institute of Health Sciences and Sports of Tallinn University and the author of Sportlyzer’s workout management algorithms, states: “There are huge crowds of health level exercisers working out and taking part in sports events. Isn’t it surprising and paradoxical, that still they are so alone in their workout management. At the same time our team has the ability to support them with useful technology for that. I find it really inspiring and contributing to solve such a challenge.”

The first target markets of Sportlyzer are UK and USA. “There are many reasons for that: there are well developed fitness infrastructures, our target customer proportion in both populations is high, we are familiar to their cultural background, and of course, English is the No 1 language in the Internet,” says Tõnis Saag, the founder and teamleader of Sportlyzer. “It takes a little time until public launch, but it is already possible to subscribe to private bet at www.sportlyzer.com.”

Sportlyzer was founded by Tõnis Saag and an internet entrepreneur Jüri Kaljundi (CV-Online, Nagi, Emp.ly,  Talentag) in July 2009. Soon the team was joined by Kristjan Port and a well-known sports psychologist Aave Hannus. The project was funded by Enterprise Estonia to develop the algorithms and in August 2010 Sportlyzer raised seed capital. Tõnis Saag is the manager of the company and the supervisory board consists of Margus Uudam from Ambient Sound Investments, Rain Rannu from Fortumo, Andrus Oks from Estonian Development Fund, Rein Lemberpuu and Jüri Kaljundi.

Contact: Tõnis Saag, tonis.saag /at/ sportlyzer.com, +372 5690 4988, Skype tonis.saag

Virtual Coach Character Selected

Our virtual coach character contest had a lot of entries. To pick up a winner we asked our customers for their opinion.

The favourite of customers and the overall winner is the coach character by Mr Kusumah from Indonesia.

Sportlyzer’s coach will be the user-interface of our unique algorithms for workout management. So he’s already really smart and has good looks, but lacks a name. So, please SUGGEST a NAME for our COACH that you think suits him best.

Coach Character Contest – Win $300

To make Sportlyzer technology more human, we need a trustworthy Coach character to consult our customers’ workouts. Our dream-coach is respected and loved, but all human – a little weird and gossiped :).

If you are good at drawing characters and impressions, you are welcome to join our contest at 99designs.com.